Features:

• Ship presented w/realistic superstructure
• Newly tooled antennae included
• Harpoon missile launchers reproduced in subtle detail
• Intricate whaleboats available
• True-to-scale ASROC launcher is present
• Superstructure features details such as hoses and portholes
• Ladders provided as photo-etched parts
• Turret w/realistic detail
• 5-inch gun realistically produced w/extra knuckle
• Authentic gun barrels are slide molded w/hallow ends
• Optional barrels w/blast bags provided for gun turrets
• Detailed MK 56 gun directors are accurately presented
• Flight deck molded w/intricate details
• Mk10 terrier launchers w/accurate details
• An/Sp-44 Terrier launchers are authentically produced
• Structures made from 3-directional slide mold
• Antennae and ladders are newly formed from photo-etched parts
• Waterline or full-hull version can be assembled
• One-piece slide-molded upper hull w/undercut details realistically represented
• Sponsons are represented on lower hull by slide-mold technology
• True-to-scale propellers reproduced

USS Long Beach (CGN 9) was a unique ship, principally because she was the only vessel in her class. She was a nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser commissioned into the US Navy (USN) on 9 September 1961. She also had the distinction of being the USA's first all-new cruiser design since WWII, and since cruisers since then have generally been based simply on scaled-up destroyer hulls, her crew aptly described her as "The Only Real Cruiser." USS Long Beach had a pair of 5-inch 38-calibre guns mounted amidships, and in 1979 she began a midlife upgrade at Puget Sound. At that point the original aft-mounted RIM-8 Talos launcher was replaced by twin four-cell Harpoon anti-ship missile launchers. The cruiser saw combat in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War, and also endured long enough to provide support during the 1991 Gulf War as a carrier escort.